Sixties
Citypresents
a wide-ranging series of
articles on all aspects of the Sixties, penned by the creator of the iconic
60s music paper Mersey
Beat

Nell
Dunn was born in London in 1936, the daughter of Sir Philip Dunn. Her mother
was the daughter of the 5th Earl of Rosslyn, who was the man who broke the
bank at Monte Carlo, which made her a descendant of Charles II and Nell
Gwynn. She was educated at a convent school which she left at the age of
14, although while there she wrote her first play when she was only 13.
Nell married old Etonian, writer Jeremy Sandford in 1957 when she was 20
and they moved into fashionable Cheyne Walk in Chelsea, although Nell didn’t
like living there.

In 1959, when she was 23, the couple crossed the bridge from Chelsea and
bought a small house in Battersea for £700. She became enchanted with the
people and began to work in a sweet factory, later commenting, “I felt immediately
at home. I wasn’t lonely any more.” She recalled, “It was the most beautiful
place I have ever been to. A grapevine grew wild over the outdoor lavatory
and the garden was full of sunflowers six-feet high with faces as wide as
dinner-plates. At the end of our street were four tall chimneys.”

Battersea then became the subject of her book of short reminiscences of
the area called ‘Up the Junction’, first published by MacGibbon & Kee in
1963 and as a paperback by Pan Books in 1966. The book became the subject
of both a television play and a film. It was also awarded the John Llewellyn
Rhys Memorial Prize. The television version was part of the BBC’s ‘The Wednesday
Play’ series in 1965 and was directed by Ken Loach and featured Carol White.

The film version was directed by Peter Collinson in 1968 and starred Suzy
Kendall and Dennis Waterman, with the soundtrack by Manfred Mann. Although
not a novel and containing short sketches of life in Battersea, it was similar
to the voyage the affluent author had made by crossing from Chelsea into
the working class community of Battersea and proved controversial because
of the reference to back street abortions.

Her first novel ‘Poor Cow’, set in Fulham and Catford, was published in
1967. It also became a best seller and spawned a film version, directed
by Ken Loach and starring Carol White and Terence Stamp, once again focussing
on the fortunes of a 22 year old working class girl called Joy, with a young
son Jonny.
Her husband is in jail, she has an affair with another man, who is also
sent to jail and she says, "To think when I was a kid I planned to conquer
the world and if anyone saw me now they'd say, 'She's had a rough night,
poor cow."'

By the time they moved to Putney, the couple were quite a success as Sandford’s
play ‘Cathy Come Home’, starring Carol White, caused national interest with
its depiction of the plight of homeless people.

Nell’s
marriage with Sandford lasted until 1979, during which time the couple had
three sons, and was officially dissolved in 1986. Nell continued to write
both books and plays, and has published eight novels, but ‘Up the Junction’
and ‘Poor Cow’ remain her most successful works, although her play ‘Steaming’
in 1981 received acclaim and was also made into a feature film, directed
by Joseph Losey and starring Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles and Diana Dors.This
was the tale of six women in a Turkish bath discussing topics ranging from
sex, life and death to men. The play itself resulted in her being awarded
the 1981 London Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright.

She admits, “I have done books about the middle class, but they’ve never
sold very well. People seem to prefer my working class stuff.”
In 2003 she wrote the play ‘Cancer Tales’ inspired by the death of her father
many years before.

Her latest play is ‘The Swimming Pool’ which premiered in Guildford in 2007.

Bill
Harryattended
the Liverpool College of Art with Stuart Sutcliffe and John Lennon and made
the arrangements for Brian Epstein to visit The Cavern, where he saw The
Beatles for the first time. Bill was a member of 'The Dissenters' and the
founder and editor of 'Mersey Beat', the iconic weekly music newspaper
that documented the early Sixties music scene in the Liverpool area and
is possibly best known for being the first periodical to feature a local
band called 'The Beatles'. He has worked as a high powered publicist, doing
PR for acts such as Suzi Quatro, Free, The Arrows and Hot Chocolate and
has managed press campaigns for record labels such as CBS, EMI, Polydor.
Bill is the critically acclaimed author of a large number of books about
The Beatles and the 60s era including 'The Beatles Who's Who', 'The Best
Years of the Beatles' and the Fab Four's 'Encyclopedia' series. He has appeared
on 'Good Morning America' and has received a Gold Award from the British
Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors.